Sidney Poitier, a Hollywood legend who paved the way for many African American actors, died at the age of 94.
He was the first African American to win the Oscar for Best Leading Actor.
Among his most famous films "The lilies of the field", "Guess who's coming to dinner" and "The warm night of Inspector Tibbs"
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The son of farmers from a small island in the Bahamas, at 16 he was sent by his parents to Miami and then to New York. He was born on a boat in the middle of the sea while his parents brought tomatoes to sell at the market. After the usual rigmarole of humble jobs, petty crime and a short enlistment in the American army, he tries the path of the theater and goes on stage on Broadway with a Lysistrata made by a company of only blacks.
In his debut film, Mankiewicz's 'White Man You Will Live' ('49), he plays a doctor wrongfully accused by racists
of letting a friend of his die. Long-limbed, elegant, with fine features, Poitier is the classic black that well-meaning whites like, somehow similar to them, integrated, cultured and tamed, even if fiercely determined to assert its rights on a level of complete equality. It is perhaps also for this characteristic that he becomes the emblem of an anti-racist cause fought as a non-violent with the weapons of dialogue and civilization (among his points of reference are Gandhi and Nelson Mandela).
In 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?' ('67) and 'Inspector Tibbs' hot night', his greatest successes, is faced with two different forms of racism:
the first, very politely controlled, is represented by the couple Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn, parents progressives who are surprised to see their black boyfriend of their daughter arrive for dinner; the second is instead embodied by the grim sheriff Rod Steiger with whom Poitier, police inspector, should collaborate on a murder case.
After the global success of the latter film, Poitier will be called upon to play the same character in two sequels.
Although his notoriety is mainly linked to the many roles of actor, Poitier has also been the director of a dozen films including 'Hanky Panky - Escape for two', a comedy disguised as a thriller starring Gene Wilder.
Believer, progressive but never revolutionary, the Hollywood black extremely determined despite his good manners paved the way for American cinema for all the black actors who have established themselves after him.